” The IRS’s inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner’s emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency’s chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

The accompanying video , while not directly addressing the latest news on the “destroyed” emails’ recent recovery , provides readers willing to spend the time watching it with a broad overview of the entire scandal .

Washington Times has much more on the latest developments in what is finally turning into a criminal investigation of Obama’s IRS .

The new poll also asked why the White House is refusing to release thousands of pages of documents related to the IRS targeting. By nearly three-to-one people think it’s because the administration wants to keep its role in the scandal secret (63 percent) rather than to keep taxpayer information confidential (22 percent).

Even Democrats are more likely to say the Obama White House is withholding documents to hide its involvement (45 percent) rather than to protect taxpayers (35 percent). Another 20 percent is unsure.

Many of the tax-exempt groups the IRS targeted for special scrutiny have “tea party” in their name. For those who consider themselves part of that movement, 87 percent want the congressional investigation to continue, and another 91 percent feel the Obama administration is covering up its role by withholding documents.”

” Judicial Watch, a constitutionally conservative, non-profit educational foundation, has new evidence against Lois Lerner in the IRS Tea Party targeting case. Documents they’ve just obtained from the Department of Justice show that the former IRS official met with Department of Justice’s Election Crimes Division one month before the 2010 elections. The Justice Department has withheld more than 800 pages of documents in the Lerner investigation, citing “taxpayer privacy” and “deliberative privilege.”” These new documents dramatically show how the Justice Department is up to its neck in the IRS scandal and can’t be trusted to investigate crimes associated with the IRS abuses that targeted Obama’s critics. And it is of particular concern that the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, which would ordinarily investigate the IRS abuses, is now implicated in the IRS crimes,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.

Chris Farrell, director of research and investigations for Judicial Watch, talked more about the significance of these newly discovered DOJ meetings, on CBN News Today, Dec. 9. “

” In a shocking revelation, the Treasury Inspector General has identified some 2,500 documents that “potentially” show taxpayer information held by the Internal Revenue Service being shared with President Obama’s White House.

The discovery was revealed to the group Cause of Action, which has sued for access to any of the documents. It charges that the IRS and White House have harassed taxpayers.

In an email from the Justice Department’s tax office, an official revealed the high number of documents, suggesting that the White House was hip deep in probes of taxpayers, likely including conservatives and Tea Party groups associated with the IRS scandal.

In requesting a delay in the delivery date of the documents, Justice told Cause of Action, “The agency [Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration] has located 2,500 potentially responsive documents and anticipates being able to finish processing 2,000 of these pages by the December 1 date. It needs the additional two weeks to deal with the last 500 pages to determine if they are responsive and make any necessary withholdings.”

” Plaintiff Selim Zherka filed this … action claiming that employees of the Internal Revenue Service hindered his application for tax exempt status and initiated an investigation against him as part of a broader effort to penalize members of the Tea Party for their political activities….

Beginning in 2009, plaintiff published newspaper articles and held rallies criticizing government officials for political corruption and “confiscatory tax policies.” Plaintiff organized and supported the creation of the Tea Party, a political party that received extensive publicity in the news media. At some point, plaintiff sought tax-exempt status for an organization he and others used primarily for educational purposes. However, plaintiff claims that defendant Lois Lerner …, an IRS employee, subjected his application to an inordinately high level of scrutiny, forcing him to abandon his efforts to obtain tax-exempt status. [The case against Lois Lerner was dismissed because “Plaintiff has not satisfied its burden of showing that [he] served defendant Lerner with a copy of the summons and complaint.” — EV]

Plaintiff alleges that in 2011, agent Ryan of the Federal Bureau of Investigation … and agent Ashcroft … of the IRS began an investigation into his commercial real estate dealings. Plaintiff claims these defendants issued over 75 subpoenas to his business associates, threatening them with criminal prosecution should they withhold information incriminating plaintiff. Plaintiff alleges that as a result, many of these business associates terminated their relationship with him out of a fear of “running asunder of federal agencies.” He asserts that defendants’ conduct was part of a broader government strategy to penalize Tea Party members for their political speech.

Plaintiff claims to have lost business as a result of the ongoing investigation. Moreover, he claims that defendants’ actions have chilled his political activities, damaged his reputation, and caused emotional injuries…. “

” The revelation that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Marilynn Tavenner did not retain her e-mails means that more than 20 witness in the Obama administration to lose or delete e-mails without notifying Congress, according to the top House investigator.

“ The Obama administration has lost or destroyed e-mails for more than 20 witnesses, and in each case, the loss wasn’t disclosed to the National Archives or Congress for months or years, in violation of federal law,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said of Tavenner’s lost e-mails.

“ It defies logic that so many senior Administration officials were found to have ignored federal record keeping requirements only after Congress asked to see their e-mails,” he continued. “Just this week, my staff followed up with HHS, who has failed to comply with a subpoena from ten months ago. Even at that point, the administration did not inform us that there was a problem with Ms. Tavenner’s e-mail history. Yet again, we discover that this administration will not be forthright with the American people unless cornered.” “

” One month after Congress held former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt for refusing to testify about her involvement in targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, the IRS told Congress Friday that it lost over two years’ worth of crucial emails between Lerner and various federal agencies.

The agency claimed that the emails were lost because Lerner’s computer crashed in 2011.”

Not to worry , the NSA will have copies and Steve Stockman wants the metadata …

I am writing to request the Agency produce all metadata it has collected on all of Ms. Lerner’s email accounts for the period between January 2009 and April 2011. The data may be transmitted to our Communications Director at Donny@mail.house.gov. Your prompt cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated and will help establish how IRS and other personnel violated rights protected by the First Amendment.

The IRS said it was able to gather 24,000 of Lerner’s emails that had been copied to other IRS employees. However, the vital missing emails are communications that were sent to agencies outside of the IRS, including “the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices,” according to Camp’s office.”

” Expecting House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to win his GOP primary in Virginia, I spent Election Day in Pennsylvania – interviewing angry Republicans, Democrats and independents about the rise of political populism.

I was in the wrong state, but I had the right topic. Cantor’s defeat has less to do with immigration reform than it does with an uneven movement that should frighten conservative and liberal political elites to their shallow cores.

Americans see a grim future for themselves, their children and their country. They believe their political leaders are selfish, greedy and short-sighted – unable and/or unwilling to shield most people from wrenching economic and social change. For many, the Republican Party is becoming too extreme, while the Democratic Party – specifically President Obama – raised and dashed their hopes for true reform.”

Only someone who has lived in a cave for the past twenty years could believe that real change can come from the District of Corruption . Despite the best efforts of the Corporate-State run media to demonize all things Tea Party and despite the occasional drug-addled morons shooting up the neighborhood a la Las Vegas , more and more citizens are coming to the conclusion that the ballot box and the courts offer no recourse …

” At the West Chester’s popular D.K. Diner, a U.S. veteran who served five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan said the only solution may be a revolution against political elites. “We may need to drag politicians out and shoot them like they did in Cuba,” said a grim-faced Frederick Derry two days after a Los Vegas couple allegedly shot two police officers. The attackers draped their bodies with a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, according to ABC News, pinned a swastika on them and a note that read “The revolution has begun.”

A violent revolution is unconscionable. But what may be in the air is a peaceful populist revolt – a bottom-up, tech-fueled assault on 20th century political institutions. In a memo to his fellow Democrats, former Clinton White House political director Doug Sosnik writes persuasively about “an increasing populist push“ across the political spectrum.

At the core of Americans’ anger and alienation is the belief that the American Dream is no longer attainable. Previous generations held fast to the promise that anyone who worked hard and played by the rules could get ahead, regardless of their circumstances. But increasingly, Americans have concluded that the rules aren’t fair and that the system has been rigged to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a privileged few at the expense of the many. And now the government is simply not working for anyone.”

Sosnik is wrong in that the government is working for some people and some businesses , just not the bulk of the taxpaying public . It’s working just fine if you draw a publicly funded paycheck as a federal employee or are a lobbyist , politician or corporate bigwig . It also works quite well if you happen to be a member of the media elite as the cronyism and nepotism between those two entities is well-documented .

But he is correct in thinking that the time is nigh for the average citizen to choose sides and decide if he/she will indeed take part in the destruction of the barricades .

” Which side of the barricade are you on? Populists from the right and the left – from the tea party and libertarian-leaning Rand Paul to economic populist Elizabeth Warren – are positioning themselves among the insurgents. Sosnik pointed to six areas of consensus that eventually may unite the divergent populist forces:

A pull back from the rest of the world with more of an inward focus.

A desire to go after big banks and other large financial institutions

Elimination of corporate welfare.

Reducing special deals for the rich.

Pushing back on the violation of the public’s privacy by the government and big business.

Reducing the size of government.

In Washington, Cantor’s defeat is being chalked up to the tea party’s intolerance toward immigration reform. While he paid a price for flirting with a White House compromise, Cantor’s greater sin was inauthenticity – brazenly flip-flopping on the issue. Typical politician.”

Mr Fournier’s contention that Elizabeth “Fauxcahontas” Warren is anything but a confirmed Statist aside , we are willing to concede that the lines of battle are being drawn and that there is much common ground to be found between the Occupy crowd and the Tea Partiers .

The question remains , which American personage will be able to unite these disparate interests and lead the charge over the barricades of corruption to reinstate American republicanism and reestablish a nation of limited government .

” In a stunning upset, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost the GOP Virginia primary Tuesday night to Dave Brat, an economics professor and political novice.

The Associated Press called the race for Cantor about an hour after polls closed at 7 p.m. ET.

Cantor is the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House and was widely seen as the next in line to succeed House Speaker John Boehner.

Cantor’s loss to a political novice with little money marks a huge victory for the Tea Party movement, which supported Cantor just a few years ago.

Brat had been a thorn in Cantor’s side on the campaign, casting the congressman as a Washington insider who isn’t conservative enough. His message apparently scored well with voters in the 7th District.

” There needs to be a change,” said Joe Mullins, who voted in Chesterfield County Tuesday. The engineering company employee said he has friends who tried to arrange town hall meetings with Cantor, who declined their invitations.

Tiffs between the GOP’s establishment and Tea Party factions have flared in Virginia since Tea Party favorite Ken Cuccinelli lost last year’s gubernatorial race. Cantor supporters have met with stiff resistance in trying to wrest control of the state party away from Tea party enthusiasts, including in the Cantor’s home district.”

” The United States is reviving a law enforcement group to investigate those it designates as domestic terrorists, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Following hate-motivated shootings such as the one at a Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, Missouri in April, federal prosecutors have pressed the need to coordinate intelligence about such criminals on a national level, Justice Department officials said.

The Department of Justice will reconstitute a task force that was originally formed after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing but dissolved after the Sept. 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks as law enforcement agencies focused on threats from militants abroad.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the United States remains concerned about threats from Islamic extremists, but the group will focus on other motives for attacks within U.S. borders.”

These results from the Republican Leadership Conference are more interesting for who lost than who won . Governor Rhino from NJ came in dead last and was in fact beaten by two candidates that were not even on the ballot . Take a hint Christie and stay in New Jersey .

” In the straw poll, 633 ballots were cast, which was attended by more than 1,500 people. The results were as follows:

” ~As I’ve had cause to remark many times before, Americangovernmentiscorrupt. The IRS scandal is Ground Zero for the corruption of the republic, and, if you want it in a nutshell, the invaluable Judicial Watch just provided it. (Incidentally, the fact that an outside group gets more useful results than Congressional oversight does is itself testament to the diseased state of American institutions: the executive branch treats the legislative branch with ever more open contempt.) Here is Lois Lerner’s email explaining the BOLO (“Be On the Look-Out“) criteria for identifying and scrutinizing what it regards as “Tea Party’ groups:

1. ‘Tea Party’, ‘Patriots’ or ‘9/12 Project’ is referenced in the case file.

2. Issues include government spending, government debt and taxes.

3. Educate the public through advocacy/legislative activities to make America a better place to live.

4. Statements in the case file that are critical of the how the country is being run.

That last gets to the nub of the matter: Supposedly impartial agencies of the state are explicitly targeting the ruling party’s political enemies. In other words, it’s the merging of the state and the party in order to criminalize opposition: the very definition of a banana republic.”

” A Morgan Hill high school has constructed a fence to block protesters from disrupting classes on Cinco de Mayo, after plans were announced by a Tea Party group to protest the school’s 2010 decision to send students home for wearing the American flag on the Spanish holiday.

Calls for demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, and even suggestions that a group of motorcyclists will arrive prompted authorities to put the fence around the front of Live Oak High.”

” The Republican National Committee, just in time for Tax Day, is filing a lawsuit against the IRS over what it calls “illegal stonewalling” of its request for documents related to the agency’s targeting of conservative groups.

The RNC called the agency’s refusal so far to produce the documents “unacceptable and inexcusable.”

” We’re filing this suit because the Obama administration has a responsibility to be transparent and accountable to the American people. The IRS has a legal obligation to answer our inquiry for these records,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “If the IRS and the Obama administration don’t have anything to hide, why not answer the request?” “

” Even as the IRS faces growing heat over Lois G. Lerner and the tea party targeting scandal, a government watchdog said Wednesday it’s pursuing cases against three other tax agency employees and offices suspected of illegal political activity in support of President Obama and fellow Democrats.

In one case the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal employees who conduct politics on government time, said it was “commonplace” in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office.

In another case, a worker at the tax agency’s customer help line urged taxpayers “to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name,” the Office of Special Counsel said in a statement. OSC said it is seeking “significant disciplinary action” against that employee. Another IRS employee in Kentucky has agreed to serve a 14-day suspension for blasting Republicans in a conversation with a taxpayer.”

A fourteen day suspension ? That’s a joke . Any Federal employee caught advocating for ANY candidate or policy on the taxpayer’s dime should be summarily fired … period … no ifs and or buts … FIRED .

“ They’re going to take women back 40 years,” the IRS employee said in a conversation that was recorded. The employee also said that “if you vote for a Republican, the rich are going to get richer and the poor are going to get poorer.”That employee went on to tell the taxpayer she knew she wasn’t supposed to be voicing her political opinions, and asked the taxpayer not to say anything. In the Dallas situation, the OSC issued a letter to employees reminding them they aren’t allowed to do anything that would appear to be campaigning.”

The IRS debacle is the perfect example of why government needs to be kept to it’s absolute minimum if there is to be liberty for all . The Founders understood that and the hard-left progressives understand it as well . That is why they push for ever-more State power , because they realize that the State and it’s adherents (read: employees) will inevitably support MORE government .

So we are left with a State that is paid for by all the citizens , well all the tax-paying ones anyway , but that really serves the very narrow interests of the State itself and those that profit directly from it . Unless something is done about the IRS and the rest of these Federal agencies and power returned to the states where it belongs in a Republic we are doomed to sink under the weight of a biased system of administrative law and bureaucratic fiat .

“ I think we are going to crush them everywhere,” McConnell toldThe New York Times during an interview on Saturday. “I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country.”

McConnell added: “I know this: Politics doesn’t like losers. If you don’t have anything to point to, it is kind of hard to keep it going.” “

You’re right about one thing McConnell , politics doesn’t like losers … You and Boehner being perfect examples . Read more about where McConnell’s true allegiance lies here and be forewarned it is not with the people or fiscal responsibility …

” The Tea Party was alive and well at CPAC in Washington, D.C., this past week.

It was both refreshing and encouraging to witness in-person thousands of young conservatives gathering at CPAC to deliver to the Republican Party establishment that we are conservatives first and GOP supporters only when the GOP embraces conservative principles.”

The good doctor writes on Ted Cruz …

“ How did you like President Bob Dole, President John McCain, and President Mitt Romney?” Sen. Ted Cruz asked the CPAC audience. “When you don’t stand up for principle, the Democrats celebrate.”

Cruz’s point was clear: “Me-too” establishment GOP presidential cannot win by trying to create a “Big Tent” Republican Party that echoes the Democrats in wanting big government and tolerating unreasonable taxes by offering programs like “Romney-care” that are all-too-much like what the Democrats imagine in their expanding version of a social welfare state.

“ We need to audit the Federal Reserve that is driving up the cost of living for all Americans and fueling the power of petro-tyrants like Putin,” Cruz insisted.”

And Rand Paul …

” Sen. Rand Paul, who won the CPAC presidential poll for a second year in a row, rocked CPAC with a speech openly directed against the GOP establishment.

” The Internal Revenue Service will give documents and emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner to the House Ways and Means Committee, House Republicans announced Friday.

The news was released in a statement from committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, who said the IRS was finally handing over the documents he requested months ago, as his committee continues its investigation into the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups.

” From the few Lerner documents we have received, we know that Washington, D.C., orchestrated the targeting of groups applying for tax-exempt status, surveillance of existing tax-exempt groups and formed the proposed 501(c)(4) rules designed to push conservative groups out of the public forum,” Camp said.

” The remaining documents are key to determining the level of wrong doing and deception committed by this agency,” he added. “

” Emails reportedly have “set the record straight,” backing up Rep. Darrell Issa’s assertion that beleaguered former IRS official Lois Lerner will finally answer questions before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the agency’s targeting of conservative political groups.

The Hill reported that emails between committee staff and an attorney for the retired head of the agency’s tax-exempt division were released Monday to prove Issa’s statements were correct about her planned testimony — without immunity.

The California Republican lawmaker is yanking Lerner back before his committee because she previously refused to talk about the IRS’ controversial targeting, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights.